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Man found with pot, stolen gun in Oconee

Managing editor

An Oconee County man who thought a prowler was trying to steal his truck wound up behind bars when sheriff’s deputies arrived Saturday morning to help him and learned he was wanted and had marijuana-growing equipment, according to the sheriff’s office.

A neighbor called authorities about 8:30 a.m. Saturday to report that a trespasser appeared to be crouching in the woods behind 52-year-old Michael Lee Keyser’s house at 1321 Julian Drive.

Deputies arrived to find a man in the backyard carrying a pistol in his left hand, according to Chief Deputy Lee Weems. At first the man ignored commands to drop the weapon, but eventually complied.

Deputies then learned the man was Keyser, the homeowner, and that he was in the backyard looking for the prowler.

Still, when deputies checked his identification, they learned Keyser was wanted on a felony theft by receiving stolen property charge in Clarke County, according to sheriff’s deputies. The gun also was listed as stolen from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Weems said.

“I have no idea how he got a gun that was stolen from the ATF,” Weems said.

When they searched the house, deputies found grow lights and scales, a substance believed to be methamphetamine and marijuana, according to deputies.

Oconee County deputies turned Keyser over to Clarke County authorities to face the outstanding theft charge, but also intend to charge him with theft by receiving stolen property (for the firearm), possession of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.